Unexpected Costs Coming to the City from the Water Pollution Control Plant

HORNELL, NY – According to Water Pollution Control Plant head Rich Dunning, the city is expected to incur some extra costs from his plant. “We have a surplus of sludge at the plant, and we are exceeding our storage capacity,” explained Dunning. “This is a result of having one of the wettest summers and falls in a long time, and we can’t dispose of our waste in the usual manner so we needed a backup plan.”

Dunning says the backup plan is to haul the excess waste to the Wayland plant and have them process the sludge into a 20% solid material and then truck it to a landfill. “it’s kind of an expensive process,” continued Dunning, “with a cost of 10 to 15 cents a gallon to process, and another $39 a ton to dispose of it, the city is looking at an estimated extra $50,000 that they need to budget for.”

The city normally recycles their wastes into farmers’ fields and such in the autumn, but could not use that approach this year because of the abundance of precipitation followed by the cold weather. “The last time this happened was 15 years ago,” said Dunning, “So it is not a regular occurrence, but one you have to be prepared for.”